December 27, 2024. How Far is Too Far?.

I've been thinking about distance. Not the kind you can measure with a ruler or something, but the kind that exists in our minds. The space between what is and what could be. The gap between perception and reality. The distance between now and maybe.

Here's what sparked this train of thought: I was working late (as usual), trying to solve a particularly stubborn problem. Someone asked me, "How close are you to fixing it?" And I realized - I had no idea how to answer that. Was I 90% there? 10%? 

In the world of imagination and problem-solving, what does "close" even mean?

It's fascinating, isn't it? We're so comfortable with measuring physical things. Five kilometers to the store. Two cups of coffee (okay, maybe four). 3,916 lines of code in our prototype. 

But how do you measure the distance to a breakthrough? How far is your mind from understanding something new? How do you calculate the space between where you are and where you want to be?

Take imagination, for instance. People often ask me if I'm dreaming too big with Abdi & Brothers Company. "Isn't that too far?" they say. 

But what's the unit of measurement for dreams? Is there a scale from "reasonable" to "impossible" that we can all agree on? 

Who gets to decide where "ambitious" ends and "unrealistic" begins?

History is full of people who were told they were going "too far." 

The Wright brothers were "too far" from reality when they thought humans could fly. The early internet pioneers were "too far" when they imagined a connected world.

Every revolutionary idea started as someone's "too far" dream.

When I look at traditional systems that need reshaping - education, technology, business - I wonder about this concept of distance. To some, the gap between what is and what could be looks like an uncrossable chasm. To others, it's just a single step waiting to be taken. Same distance, different perceptions.

Think about time for a moment. We try to box it into neat categories - past, present, future. But where exactly does "now" end and "later" begin? When does "soon" become "too late"? These aren't just philosophical questions - they shape how we think about progress, innovation, possibility.

I've noticed something interesting about breakthroughs and innovations: they rarely happen in a straight line. You can't plot them on a timeline and say "X more days until eureka!" Sometimes you feel stuck for weeks, and then suddenly, in one moment, the distance between not knowing and knowing vanishes. The gap between impossible and possible collapses.

Maybe that's why I'm fascinated by this question of "how far is too far?" Because it's not really about distance at all. It's about perception. It's about the stories we tell ourselves about what's possible. It's about the invisible boundaries we draw in our minds and then treat as if they were physical walls.

In my journey building this company, I've learned that "too far" is often just another way of saying "I can't see the path yet." But here's the thing about paths - they don't always exist until someone walks them. The distance between where we are and where we want to be isn't fixed. It's not like the unchanging space between two points on a map. It's fluid, dynamic, shaped by our imagination, our effort, our persistence.

When people tell me my ideas are too far out there, I think about all the things that once seemed impossibly far and are now everyday reality. I think about how distance in the realm of innovation and imagination isn't something you measure - it's something you perceive, and then either accept or challenge.

So maybe the real question isn't "how far is too far?" Maybe it's "what makes us think something is too far in the first place?" 

Maybe those boundaries we perceive aren't walls to stop us, but horizons inviting us to explore beyond them.

After all, in a world where we can instantly connect with someone on the other side of the planet, where we can hold the world's knowledge in our pockets, where we can teach machines to think - maybe "too far" is just a story we tell ourselves when we're afraid to take the next step.

Here's what I believe: The distance between impossible and possible isn't measured in meters or minutes. It's measured in courage, in persistence, in the willingness to keep going when others say you've gone too far. 

And in that measurement standard, "too far" doesn't exist.

So dream big. Think wild. Go far. And when someone asks if you're going too far, remember - every great leap forward in human history started with someone willing to go beyond what others thought was far enough.

The horizon isn't a boundary - it's an invitation. How far will you go?